Do you abide by the 24-hour leftovers rule at your house? 

Leftovers, if left unattended, are fair game after a certain amount of time. Food has a natural expiration date on it and, if you're like me, you grew up in a family that didn't waste food or throw it away until it was growing a ptetri dish of mold spores or smelled like a rotting mess. Food is meant to be eaten, not wasted. 

A college student knows that lesson better than anyone, especially when they're living on their own for the first time and spending money on exorbitant groceries like a real-life adult. Adulting is hard that way, one minute you're eating out of your mom and dad's fridge, and the next you're counting quarters in the Vons line and taking that avocado out of the conveyor belt to stay under your grocery budget. In that kind of household, food absolutely 100% cannot go to waste. 

This 18-year-old was learning about life the hard way, and as if by magic, one evening, a DoorDash order was mistakenly dropped off on their doorstep. After being visited by the food delivery fairy, this college student posted all over local neighborhood chatrooms, hoping to find the original orderer of the food, but as the chalupa smell wafted through their house, their strength wavered. 

Hunger churned in their belly as the hours passed, and after hours without someone claiming their meal, they decided to take control. Don't waste food, right? Especially when it falls out of the sky with no apparent owner. Well, this logic came back to bite them, almost as eagerly as they bit into that cheesy bean burrito. 

At what point does feeling welcome in someone else's home start crossing the line into feeling entitled?

I'm sure there's nothing more embarrassing for a mother to have to confront her teenage daughter about her boyfriend. And, especially, when that has to do with food. I mean, I certainly would not want to be in her shoes when it comes to this. I think she did well to reach out to the community on Reddit to find some opinions about the matter.

I believe that the most conflicting part about this has to do with the part where he's pretty comfortable with the home, and acts like it's his own. Since we don't have any background about his parents or family, his behavior feels out of place. Requesting dinners, or even complaining when the menu doesn't fit his palate, is disrespectful.

I hope the mother can find the bravery to confront both kids, or maybe her daughter, and put this boy in the place where he belongs. It doesn't have to escalate into something crazy or super big. Just a comment to know that he's been heard, and that he needs to change his attitude. I'm sure the family can find a solution to work this problem out, and I definitely hope that there's not going to be backlash for mom, since she just wants to feel respected and appreciated. 

Also, it's very important to clarify that this situation isn't really about food at all. It's about respect, boundaries, and recognizing that someone else's generosity shouldn't be taken for granted. When a guest starts acting like they have a say in what's stocked in the fridge or what's being served for dinner, it's understandable that a host might begin to feel uncomfortable in their own home. Let us know in the comments what you would do in this situation!

If you're at that point in life where you're calm on the outside and screaming on the inside, then consider this your official feline support group. Sit back, relax, scroll through, and let the cats do the yelling for you. You can rest assured that somewhere out there, a tiny dramatic feline is expressing exactly what you feel but can't say out loud. Sometimes life calls for dramatic screaming cat memes to cope.

Sometimes we need to let out a little AAAAAAAAA and move on with our lives. Try not to do that in public. You'll scare the people out. But I believe we all scream internally at some moments in life. 

That's why these screaming cats are so relatable. They basically get us. A tiny problem can feel huge and make us feel like drowning in a glass of water. I can't blame you. Sometimes, a minor inconvenience takes the last bit of patience you had left. We've all been through a dramatic main character moment. No matter if we are students, overthinkers, tired workers, all of them at the same time, or anyone who pretends to be fine but is practically overwhelmed by what life is throwing at them. 

But hey, don't worry. Just yell it out as these cats do. You don't always need a mature response. And you'll instantly feel better. That's the beauty of a screaming cat meme. They can do the yelling for you, and it doesn't need context to be relatable. Whatever the reason for the yelling, we understand, and we relate. Maybe the cat is angry, or maybe he's excited, or maybe he just walked into a room and felt like the vibes required some volume. The thing is, cats are not ashamed of yelling. They do what they've got to do, and they walk away. It's simple. Relieving. Cathartic. 

Cats bring so much confidence to the function. They face life with no fear and no regrets at all. Sometimes, we feel like confident cats. But sometimes we don't, and we just sit awkwardly in silence, replaying an embarrassing situation over and over, regretting every insignificant choice we made throughout the day.  

Be like these cats. Embrace awkwardness. Let it be. You don't have to be in control of every situation all the time. It's alright to not always know how to handle things. It's okay to have embarrassing moments. We all have them. Maybe you waved back at someone who wasn't waving at you. Maybe you walked into the wrong room, and everyone was staring at you. Maybe you didn't hear the joke, everyone's laughing, and you have to ask what the joke is. It happens. But the key to surviving the awkwardness is confidence. With a confident attitude, you can get away with any silly mistake. 

Trust me. Be like these cats. They don't feel ashamed. They live life without worrying about making mistakes or looking ridiculous. In fact, you could catch them doing the weirdest things; they could be stuck in a box, or hanging from your curtains, looking like they really need help, but they'd still look like nothing happened. Yeah, I meant to do this. This is actually how curtains are supposed to be used. Didn't you know, hooman?

So if you're going to be awkward, commit to it, just like these cats do. No one recovers their dignity half as fast as they do, and they are proud of their talent. They might have forgotten how to cat, but they've definitely stayed confident and determined. 

"You can't go on vacation because we need you, and if you go, you're fired" is an equation that could baffle Ivy League mathematicians. A paradox that can be studied in philosophy classes for years. And this company's using it on simple employees… what a waste.As someone who spends a lot of his time reading philosophy, I can tell you managers and corporations are some of the best at producing paradoxes, anomalies, thought experiments, whatever you wanna call them.Add that to the fact this company's doing everything in its power to make policy changes cryptic, and you have all the evidence you need to conclude they're not greedy and probably somewhat evil. Oh no! They're scholars! Academics! It's you and me that aren't smart and educated enough to grasp these concepts.Approved time off, it seems, means approved until it becomes inconvenient for someone above you, at which point it retroactively becomes a you problem, and also a character flaw

What do you get out of being exceptionally good at your work?

We all know that the answer to this question is probably… more work. When you're good at your job, and other people recognize that you're doing a good job, the reward is usually expanding your workload so that your workplace can benefit more from your success. The lucky ones might get a raise out of it, or even a promotion, but most excellent employees only get the wonderful opportunity to work more while getting nothing in return.

The positive thing about that, which most people tend to forget, is that you can always say no to the extra workload, especially if you feel like you don't actually have the capacity to take on more tasks. If you're doing a good job as it is, and you haven't got an incentive to take on a bigger workload, well, the simple solution is that you don't.

Tell your coworker, your manager, or your boss that you have enough on your plate as is, and that you don't want new tasks to take away from the job you are already putting your heart and soul into. There is not much to lose from it, especially if you know they know how good of an employee you are, and you definitely know they cannot risk losing you.

The employee who shared this story below on Reddit's r/jobs subreddit learned this lesson only after they agreed to help their coworkers with other tasks. People got so used to giving this employee more work to do that they simply assumed they could handle it all. And with no incentive or appreciation, all that extra workload simply became too much.

It was only when this employee started saying 'no' to requests that their boss finally noticed how much they've been doing, and decided to finally give the employee the recognition they deserved. All it took was putting up these boundaries, and the employee stopped feeling so invisible.

'Love is in the air', clearly we are not breathing the same air, Jackie. 

I don't know about you but dating is becoming more of a challenge than getting my degree. 

Gather round, cat lovers, because we've got a doozie for you.

Some days, we miss our cat a little extra. It's not that we don't miss her every day (of course we do, that's the nature of being a cat pawrent), but on some days the longing to get back home and see our dcat is even greater than usual. It's like an unseen force tells us "go see your cat now!", despite it being the middle of the day, and we're at work, and we can't. And this day is one of these days, which makes writing these very lines difficult, because all we think about is our cat. We think about how cute our cat is, how hilarious she is, and how we love it when she comes to ask for pets.

If you're a cat pawrent in the same situation, we feel for you. But don't worry, we didn't come all this way just so we can be miserable together while missing our cats. Oh no, we come here with way more than that. So while we all mope about because we're here and our cats are at home, we might as well look at all the cute cat content that's online. Now, we know that there are a billion ways to consume these cute and pixelated cats, but you don't have to go through all the trouble of finding the right fit for you. We've gathered these feline funnies for this reason.

So, stop moping around. We promise we'll stop it as well. This day will have an end, and we will all go back home to pet our cats, to give them a treat, and see them being just as happy as we will be to greet them again. But until then, we can fill the feline-shaped hole in our hearts with the funniest cat memes and the most pawdorable cats possible. It's not bringing your cat with you to work, but it's at least something, until you're back home hugging your own cat.

When a door closes, a window opens… sometimes, quite literally.

Imagine you're moving in with your partner - exciting news, isn't it? Definitely. But let's say you didn't have the means to get an apartment with a magnificent view - no impressive skyline, no beach sunsets, no lush forest. Only a back alley parking, the building next door, and probably some dumpsters. Yeah, we'd also be disappointed. This is why we feel for this couple who shared their story - because this is exactly how it starts. But as we've said, when the door of the lease closes, the cat window opens. Apparently.

We can't really tell if they were cat people before, but that full feline surprise outside their window sure did turn them into cat people by the time they shared this ameowzing tale with the internet. You see, it's not every day that a cat shows up on your windowsill. And then another. And another. And yet another… until you have a full cat colony coming over for noms and pets. It's like the Cat Distribution System treats this couple in their new place as a designated stray shelter. And they accept it with love.

But this is the meowgic of the Cat Distribution System - it knows exactly who to send where, matching the perfect humans for the situation at hand. And here, as it seems, they matched the back alley strays with the best caring couple they could think of. They understood the assignment immediately, and the bond between these people and these cats seems to be unbreakable.

Neighborhood cats are pawsome. But what if something happens to them? Who do they turn to for help?

Neighborhood cats. Really, it's enough to say just that for cat people like us to know exactly what we are talking about. These cats are so precious to us. They live their best lives outside but make friends with people in the neighborhood. These cats get spoiled by all the neighbors - with pets and with food. They get the best of both worlds - being a spoiled kitty loved by humans and an independent catto who still watches over their territory every single day. We love our neighborhood cats. But one thought - one concern - always crosses our minds. What if something happens to them? Who is there to help?

The answer is us - the neighbors. If a stray cat is injured, it is our job to help the cat. And if it's the neighborhood cat, a stray cat that you have bonded with, who has bonded with you, who knows you, then it is even more your duty to help them. Some neighbors would look away, but that can't be everyone. Someone has to step up. And shourapyro69 on r/cats did. 

As cute and relatively spoiled as neighborhood cats are, their lives are, in fact, more difficult than those of a house cat. And if they get injured, they will not be able to face the harsh conditions of the outside world. Not forever. Maybe this kitty would have survived some time without help, but it wouldn't have been forever. This person saved her life. And the kitty rewarded them by… well, just by deciding to stay. She is no longer the "neighborhood cat". She is no longer a stray. Now, she is a properly loved and spoiled housecat. 

Family is not just a community that supporters but also one that obliges you to do things you don't want to do for them.

From lending money to provide them with a house to leave and a bed to stay, anything can be asked by your family members, and if you want to avoid a fight, you have to do it. You may feel used or as if they are dependent on you. Unfortunately, there is not much you can do about it. If you complain or suggest that it's unfair in the slightest, then you're inconsiderate and mean. Boundaries are nonexistent, and your things are communal and more available to others than yourself. Welcome to having a toxic family!

Also common in toxic families is the preferred child, and usually it isn't you. If you have a brother who can't maintain a job, never pays rent on time, and blames everyone except himself for his mistakes and problems. Then that is the preferred child. Even better if you have an amazing job, incredible academics, and a super organized work-life balance. The more amazing you are, the more they justify the unsuccessful life your awful brother has. And it always comes with phrases like: "life is not as easy for him" or "you have everything, why not share it with your brother?" Almost treating him as an infant who can't do anything right. Well, that is the situation of the woman in this Reddit Story.

Other daughters that are "blessed" with this horrible fate just bend their heads down and try to help with what they can, only to be presented with no gratitude from anyone. But the user who wrote this story wasn't like that. She grew a grip, tired from this situation, and said no, multiple times. When his word was overruled, she took action. She changed the locks. She went above and beyond to change her sad destiny, and for that, a whole family drama was created in which the least affected person was his brother. He just moved back in with his parents and didn't care about anything. Now, even though her parents are mad at her, she stayed clear-minded about her decision, and that is the best thing she could have done. 
 

We've been asking for more cat-centered mainstream content, and here it is. 

For as long as we've lived, we have been asking for more cat content from Hollywood. Because there's so much potential. We write about cats every day, and we know, for a fact, that there is so much you can do with cats in media. There are countless movies about dogs and other animals, but for some reason, cats have not gotten the spotlight they deserve in mainstream media. 

People try, they always do. They know that there is a whole cat community to capitalize on online. And we know that too. For this reason, we are suspicious of every cat-related project that comes out. We don't want to support it just because it's about cats. That's why the musical Cats, which came out all the way back in 2019, flopped so hard. And the game Little Kitty, Big City didn't blow up. And why other cat projects haven't really taken off. 

There's a new one that came out just this week, CatchCat, which is like Pokémon Go but for cats. We're hoping it will take off, because it looks cute, but it's up to the cat community to decide if it's up to our standard. The last cat-centered project that really did amazing with the general public was the video game, Stray. It was amazing. But that came out all the way back in 2022. It's time for something new in this genre, and Ricky Gervais might be onto something. 

Ricky Gervais is a man who people either love or hate, we know this, but one thing that cannot be disputed about him is that he does incredible work for animals. He's an advocate, he works with charities, and he has his own cat - Pickle - who stars on his Twitter page all the time. He's a legit cat person. And that gives us hope. His new show, 'Alley Cats', is going to hit Netflix on August 7th, and we don't know about you guys, but we're seated. 

Breakups are not reserved for couples

Have you ever lost a friend? Not naturally, not through the passage of time, but through concrete action, a good ol' breakup just like lovers do. I have, many times, some I have gone back to, some I haven't, but it's always funny how so many words and songs and books and films exist about the end of romantic love, and how few about the end of a friendship.

Mixed-gender friendships are sometimes complicated, though they have no reason to be; it can happen, and I think catching feelings for your friend might be a universal experience. It's our first time in this life for all of us; that's why certain relationship configurations are not easy to navigate. Blessed be who can go through the turbulent waters of unrequited love without losing their cool. In this story, shared by the dumper, people did lose their cool, but we understand them.

The workday is over, you're too sleepy to be productive, and the only thing on your mind… soft cat memes. 

At least, this is how we are throughout the day. We may do this for a living - putting together listicles and listicles of silly and wholesome cat memes, but that doesn't mean that we are sick of them after work. Back when we started working here, we were worried about that. Cat memes have always been our comfort, our way of disconnecting from the world and smiling at something completely pure. We worried that would change, but it didn't. If anything, now, we only love cats and cat memes more, because we know how much love and effort go into them. 

And these soft cat memes are still our comfort. The same way that we know that they are for you as well. On a sleepy afternoon, after a long and tiring workday, the best way to chill out and let go of the stress of the day is to lie back with your cat and scroll through some cat silliness. 

We actually love doing this for a living, because not only do we get to look at tiny, cute and silly cats all day long, we also get to share them with you guys. We get to share the love, the wholesomeness, the silliness and the smiles. It's why we love ICHC. No matter what is going on in the world or on the internet, there is always one place to come back to where things are all cats and nothing but cats. And nowadays, with the chaos that is happening online every two seconds, we think that having a safe space to come back to when things are hectic and insane is invaluable. And we're happy to be part of that. 

When malicious compliance turns into simple compliance

I was about to make malicious compliance my new religion until I came across this example of it going in the exact opposite way it was expected. Maybe it's time to give up on our mischievous endeavours and turn back to old, regular, direct communication.  When something like this backfires, we get two problems where there used to be one. The thing is, it's very hard to go back to how things were when your boss loved the new implementation. Should we invent an emergency protocol for when malicious compliance goes wrong? How should it be called? Un-complying?

Did you know cats are literally unable to taste sweets? Their taste buds cannot process sugar the way ours do, which is why they are not supposed to be so into sweet treats. But these cats? They seem determined to prove it wrong. They've clearly grown an imaginary sweet tooth. Just look at them, they passionately enjoy ice cream, donuts, and cake better than anyone else. And by anyone else, I mean their pawrents. They stare at sweet treats with the kind of passion most of us have for our favorite comfort foods. And by most of us, I mean me.

Unlike many people (again, me), these cats clearly believe dessert should be shared. The moment their pawrents bring out a cake or unwrap something sweet, they are throwing their paws at it. You couldn't imagine they actually can't taste the sweetness, because they lick the frosting with such dedication that it seems it's the best sweet treat they've ever tasted. 

Maybe it's not the sugar that catches their attention. Maybe it's simply that they want what you are having. Maybe they suffer a kind of feline FOMO. If my hooman is eating, then I must be eating it too. After all, if it's good for you, it's probably worth investigating. And if you don't share? They will stare at it and meow about it until they get what they want.  

That's a very cat thing to do. Cats are curious. If they can't have it, they immediately seem intrigued to investigate it. They don't want to miss out on anything, so the more you try to keep it away from them, the more they will try to inspect it. So your dessert isn't yours anymore. The moment they see it, they decide they should be participating too. And even if their sweet tooth is imaginary, their determination isn't.  

Sometimes, doing exactly what your boss tells you is the best medicine against useless changes. 
 

Malicious compliance, what is it? And why is it so common in workplaces? Malicious compliance is a way employees can get back at their horrible bosses. It is a form of vengeance in which the workers don't do something inherently wrong. Instead, they do exactly as they are told. It is a passive-aggressive behavior in which you do exactly what you are told, while ignoring the intended outcome. This has become very common in the last few years because of some incompetent bosses who try to fix things that aren't broken. They put their nose where they aren't needed and change things that don't need to be changed. That triggers a response from overworked employees who decide to comply simply because they know it will inevitably fail. And, in the long run, that may change the way their bosses approach them.

In this Reddit story, a healthcare worker is asked to talk less, be less friendly, as –supposedly– she is not doing her work because she gets distracted with patients and other employees. That is not true, and the user knows this. That's why she complies with what she was asked. This generates a weird environment where everyone feels like she is having issues. They start to worry she may be going through a rough patch, as it extends to the boss, who originally told her to be like this, and ends up calling her to tell her to go back to normal.

This story is just another example of when bosses try to fix something that works perfectly fine. There were always good reviews about how nice the receptionist was, the workplace was harmonious, and everyone was doing their job perfectly. But no, the boss had to intervene just because she could. She did not care if it was useful advice or just micromanaging. She did it anyway, and the outcome was horrible. So maybe it's better that if everything seems to be working, leave it like that. Bosses, stop messing around when you are not needed to do anything!
 

She saved a cat from the desert, and for that she deserves a story. 

From Reddit's r/CatDistributionSystem, a woman is working at the Sandstorm Festival. She finds a tiny cat under a cabin in the desert, and the two bond. Before she knows it, she has to go back home to London, but doesn't want to leave the cat behind. She decides to buy her a ticket to London and the two form a great life together. The cat is named Hissy, and she was a bit skittish and difficult to deal with initially. After some time together and trust building, Hissy became the cuddliest cat. 

When your family thinks you're too young to demand your own bed

The practical explanation might be simple: 'They're the youngest, they're more flexible, they'll manage'. Sometimes, when you are the youngest sibling, you're forced to remain in a babyfied position. This is probably not on purpose; it's just a way of functioning that got stuck when you were a baby. The thing is, you're now 25 and have back pain (I know 25 is still young, but computers are destroying us! lol), and you are staring at the couch your family gave you as a bed during vacation, like it is a dark joke about to be amended. Well, it wasn't a joke for this woman; it was more like the last straw.

Take a meowment to give to yourself by scrolling these cat memes. 

Everyone has something that gives them a sense of peace and tranquility. It can't be chaos, errands, work, commuting, or business all the time. We need times where everything stops and we can just take a breath of air. Sometimes it feels like the weight of the world is on top of us and it's times like those that we need extra tender love and care. Some people give themselves peace by taking a long and warm bath, immersed in water, comforted by the feeling of a hug. Some people will sit in a beautiful field in nature and just bring a book, reveling in the simplicity of how calming that find of pleasure is, when the silence of nature emboldens you. Some people do it by having a candlelit dinner in a quaint restaurant with your special person, just staring into each other's eyes and being waited on by servers, eating great food. And some people do it by scrolling wholesome cat memes to calm their nerves. They ground themselves with images of adorable and wholesome furballs. 

No matter how you calm yourself down for a sense of peace, you know you always have us at I Can Has Cheezburger to show you the most up to date wholesome cats around. So instead of waiting for the universe to give you a sign, you can know that cat memes are waiting just for you.